Karak Thingaz
Karak Thingaz is a second generation hold, that was established by the the refugees of Karak Azgal. In the chaos of Azgals fall many clans were scattered. The head of clan Mikir(Dain) was able to gather some of these refugees and began to lead them north to his clans mining estates. The refugees looked to Dain(a thain of Lost Azgal) for protection and leadership in those dark times. The road was long and bitter, the refugees had had their ancestral home destroyed still they were beset by orcs. A sizeable force of orcs not content in pillaging pursued the refugee train. The orcs harried them for three weeks, striking the train suddenly only to retreat before the dwarfs could effectivly srike back. Occasionally these skirmishes turned into minor engagments. On the third day of the forth week the raids reached fever pitch. Dain surmised that a pitched battle was imminent. Outnumbered, tired, wounded, the fall of Karak Azgal still fresh in their minds(and never to be forgotten) Dwarf moral was at an all time low, Dain needed an advantage. Rangers scouting ahead of the refugees had found a deep valley, its opening a mere thirty paces wide, and so Dain marched the train through half the night to reach the valley. The refugees made ready for one last battle, the dwarfs had many wounded, women, children, their quivers were empty and there were no warmachines to prepare. All the dwarves could do was sharpen their axes, heft their hammers and pray to the ancester gods. By mid morning of the forth day(of the forth week) a tide of green rounded the dwarf line like an infection. With a great Waaaghh the mass of greenskins surged into the dwarf lines. Though wounded in mind, body and soul the dwarfs held the line. The greenskins waves breaking on the shield wall, would regroup and charge again. For six hours the battle raged the orcs unable to break the dwarf line and press their advantage of numbers. Likewise the Dwarfs could not press any advantage as the orcs retreated, their numbers too few and decreasing still. After six hours the battle was won by courage, the orcs breaking en mass leaving the field. Making their way back into the valley and camp their victory was short lived. The camp containing the women, wounded and children was another battle field. As the dwarf men fought the main force, wolf and boar riders had somehow entered the valley elsewhere and struck from behind. The dead lay everywhere, the very few hammerers guarding the camp were all dead save two. The remaing dwarf womenfolk stood in circle surrounding the dwarf children. They were bloodied and battered carrying axes, hammers, pots, pans, tent poles for cudgels even weapons taken from their would be killers. Fury and grief seized the dwarfs and mighty oaths and grudges were made. Rolden the thain leading the rangers sunk to his knees and shaved his beard there and then with his axe. Standing up he announced we has going hunting, as he walked out of the camp the surviving rangers followed him out, speaking nothing. The priestess of Vallya that had been tending for the injured and sick lay heavily wounded and dying. Kneeling next to her Dain asked for his forgiveness for not protecting his people. To which the priestess(Alne) said "There is nothing to forgive, Vallya protects. She has given these maiden warriors her courage." A century later in Karak Thingaz, the Maiden Lodge would be established. Next to the temple to Vallya it would be an oddity in dwarf culture in that the members were warriors and dwarf women. The only condition of entry that the dwarf be female and not yet married(lest more dwarf children lose their mothers). The maidens would provide guards for travellers and also serve as a police force. Dwarf men had always outnumbered dwarf women by three to one now the men outnumbered the women by five to one and many beardlings lay dead as well. It would be 150 years before Dains people would fully recover their numbers. After resting and tending to the wounded, Dain led the refugees the rest if the way to his estates. Though the mining hold could not contain them all, the refugees were relativly safe and could form some semblence of life. As a town grew up around the mining hold Dain set to creating a vast hold that would be strong and safe from attack. He summoned his most experienced miners searching for a suitable location. Several months later the miners returned with in haste. They burst into Dains cambers who immediedtly asked if they had found it. The miners as one smiled, saying "Vallya protects." It seemed that the ancester gods had gifted them indeed. The miners had discovered a geological anomaly. A series of dead volcanoes. An eruption had created a masssive volcanoe and from this later lesser eruptions had spewed from the sides creating six smaller volacnoes around it. The volcanic hot spot had moved over the centuries leaving the volcanoes inert. A magma chamber still existed under the mountains but there was no longer the preasure to fill the conduits instead newer formed conduits branched off to an active volcano roughly three leagues away. This would provide a natural barrier to the crude tunnels of the skaven and goblins. Due to the unusual magma chambers there were only two possable tunnels that could lead to the centre mountain. The largest would be turned into the entrance whilst the second had a dam constructed on the outside of the volcanoes and all manner of runes placed on the entrance and tunnels. Ironbreakers would always keep a constant watch and later defences would be added as they were invented(plumbing that would divert the runofff from the peaks into the tunnel, flamecannons etc). Delighted Dain set the engineers and miners to work. It would take 50 years of careful planning and then 50 years for the hold to take shape. It would not be considered completed for another 120 years. It would be named Karak Thingaz, the forest of loren being situated west of the hold.